Last Christmas, nearly 1.12 million children from 14 countries across the world received a special shoebox gift thanks to the commitment of supporters and volunteers across the UK. This is more than just an impressive statistic - it is the reality that each of those children will have been filled with joy at receiving a gift of love sent by children and adults that you encouraged to get involved.
Last year was a memorable one for Operation Christmas Child for a number of reasons. It was our 20 year anniversary, we launched Shoebox World enabling shoeboxes to be given online for the first time, and our brave volunteers battled Arctic conditions in the UK to ensure your shoeboxes could be shipped out to their destination countries.
As our way of saying "thank you" on this website you will find stories of the children and families impacted by your shoeboxes, from the rubble of Haiti to the rural villages of Romania and many other places in between.
So whether you packed one or more shoeboxes, drove a van to collect hundreds of shoeboxes or organised a warehouse with thousands of shoeboxes, we at Samaritan’s Purse wanted to join with them to say thank you too. Without you, this Christmas miracle couldn’t happen.
Because of you, children living in difficult circumstances experienced the joy of receiving a gift at Christmas. More than a million of these children across the world want to say “Thank you!”
To help say "thank you" to those around you, download our 2011 Thank You Powerpoint .
You can also read new stories in our latest Shoebox News 2011, download here.
